Star Echoes - Essie, Hit the Bottle, Emily de Molly, Orly, Jordana, Sally Hansen, Born Pretty

This was the mani I had on when we rang in 2018, and I wanted to go for a NYE theme at that time. I didn't post this that week just because I didn't have the time. ^_^;

[Star Echoes]

So I was going for a starburst, colourful kind of look against a dark background. I used Essie's Lots of Lux for the base, which is a dark blue glitter that dries matte. I also used Hit the Bottle's Holo There Beautiful, a silver holo stamping polish, with Born Pretty's BP-L050 stamping plate, which Ev has reviewed here in the past.

After I stamped the starburst pattern on, I added touches of nail polish randomly to the mix, such as Emily de Molly's Quest for Immortality, Orly's Here Comes Trouble, Jordana's Magenta Magic and Sally Hansen's Sea-ing Stars. They were mainly to add touches of different colour and sparkle to the whole affair.

[Base: Essie Lots of Lux
Stamping pattern: Born Pretty BP-L050
Stamping polish: Hit the Bottle Holo There Beautiful
Top coats: Emily de Molly Quest for Immortality, Orly Here Comes Trouble, Jordana Magenta Magic, Sally Hansen Sea-ing Stars]

 It's a bit of a mish-mash but I think it still looks nice!

Speckled Sky - Jordana My Superstar, Orly High On Hope

I decided to try out some oldies but goodies because I had forgotten how they looked on the nails.

[Base: Orly High On Hope
Topcoat: Jordana My Superstar]

It's rare that I remember to photograph the bottles, so here we go:

[Left: Jordana My Superstar
Right: Orly High On Hope]

From the picture above you would think that I've been hitting up Jordana My Superstar like it's the last nail polish on earth. But no, a lot of it is used because I used it to make a couple other franken polish. I actually have quite a few franken polishes, I just rarely post them because I don't think people are that interested. 

I do use Orly's High On Hope quite a bit as a base. The colourshift shimmer you see in the bottle is not visible on the nails but it's useful as a navy-ish base polish. As you case in the pictures, it's not a dark navy blue, but more of a dusty navy blue shade.

[Base: Orly High On Hope
Topcoat: Jordana My Superstar]

I had forgotten how much I liked My Superstar until I tried it out again. I love the gold, red and light blue glitter combo. The glitter density is pretty good too and only requires one coat to achieve the look above. I really like the combination of My Superstar against High On Hope. It looks colourful but restrained at the same time.

Icy Magic in Eutopia - Revlon, Jordana, LA Girl

This is a mani from September. Every layer of polish here was interesting!

[Three coats of Revlon Icy Violet]

Revlon Icy Violet has a dull plum base and a strong blue shimmer. The blue shimmer is pretty dense in this polish, which makes the blue flash pretty strong. The first time I tried this polish, it was a bit 'meh' to me, but the second time round, I did like it quite a bit better. The pinky nail has two coats of nail polish instead of three, and so the colour is a little lighter too.

Then I decided to try Jordana Magenta Magic over Icy Violet.

[Jordana Magenta Magic over Revlon Icy Violet]

Ah, Jordana polishes are so worth their cost when you can buy them for $2.99 online. :)  Magenta Magic has medium sized and fine hexagonal bright magenta glitter in a clear base. The glitter is really dense so it could be opaque in three coats. It really is so much prettier than my photos have managed to capture. This mani had no topcoat over it, so it's not very smooth.

The last picture is my standard blurry-for-shiny photo!

My fingers itched again, and I tried LA Girl Glitter Addict Eutopia over the rest of the mani:

[LA Girl Glitter Addict Eutopia over
Jordana Magenta Magic over Revlon Icy Violet]

Little bit strange, but I liked it! Eutopia is a medium sized and fine hexagonal navy blue glitter in a clear base. I quite love the colour. This is a glitter that will never build to complete opacity, but it makes for very nice layering.

Shopping in Sydney - Essence, OPI, Jordana, Sally Hansen, Revlon

Okie dokes, here are some photos I took on my mobile recently, so apologies for the quality. I've left them a bit larger so if you click on them you can see everything a bit clearer! Let's get on to the latest Shopping in Sydney post!

An almost complete look at the new range of Essence Colour n Go - photo taken at Priceline Broadway last week! Disappointed that it's not the complete range of nail polish available overseas... 

A not-quite-new-ish Cosmo Cosmetics on George Street - I think it's on the same block as the Galeries Victoria, just further up north.

Revlon and Jordana, including the Jordana Glitters range. 

OPIs from $7 (for shatters) to $13... I spotted the Spiderman collection among others. Saw some OPI My Private Jet but not sure which version (I don't own either). 

Various nail art supplies also available...I didn't end up buying anything because it's cheaper to buy lots online, but if you're in a rush or desperately need something RIGHT NOW, this may be a good option.

So, in general, lots of Sally Hansen, Jordana, OPI and Revlon. Not just nail polish, but various other bits and bobs of makeup, bodycare and fragrance too. They also have brands like MAC and Korres... However, I've seen online grumbles of either old makeup stock or doubtful authenticity so exercise caution, especially with makeup items other than nail polish...!!!

Hope that helps! =)

Green Machine - Hits Samba, Kleancolor Leaves Jingle, Jordana My Superstar

It's a green theme today! Ah, I remember the days when I didn't like green polish. Hah! Think again, past!Jamie. How silly you were!

[Two coats of Hits Speciallita Samba]

Hits Samba is a green-blue flakey in a mid-green almost-jelly base. Look, opaque in two coats! The flakes have a slight colour-shift to blue, but it's mostly greengreengreen. Isn't it gorgeous?

[Two coats of Hits Speciallita Samba]

The last one is in natural light. I don't have any other polishes that look like Hits Samba and I loooove it.

While I'm at it, here's another green mani:

[Two coats of Kleancolor Leaves Jungle]

Kleancolor Leaves Jingle. It's green glitter in a green base, and it's a really nice spring shade. I wasn't impressed looking at the polish in the bottle, but I loved it on my nails. It was just shiny enough to draw attention to the pretty colour.

[Two coats of Kleancolor Leaves Jungle]

It definitely looked darker under natural light - even in person. I'm not quite sure why, tbh. Huuhh...

Then I decided to make it dazzling instead by playing with a new purchase:

[Jordana My Superstar over Kleancolor Leaves Jingle]

This is one coat of Jordana My Superstar over Kleancolor Jingle Leaves. I love this mix of gold, blue and red hex glitter in different sizes. The polish is pretty dense as well. Jordanas are super cheap too, so it's well worth the cost.

[Jordana My Superstar over Kleancolor Leaves Jingle]

Christmas come early? :D

Evening Glitz - Jordana Glitters LA City Nights

Hello! Today I have a gorgeous glitter for you from the Jordana Glitters range. This is Jordana LA City Nights!

[Bottle to nail: Jordana Glitters in LA City Nights]

A dense glitter polish consisting of small purple glitter with larger blue glitter in a clear base. This is dense enough to give full coverage at 2 careful coats, but I used 3 anyway for maximum sparkle! It also makes an awesome sparkly polish for pedicures... ;)

[3 coats: Jordana Glitters in LA City Nights]

Isn't the colour combination just gorgeous! The formula is a bit thick, but you do get a good helping of glitter in each swipe so it's worth it. It evens out quite well but you do need a good thick layer of topcoat to get that perfect glossy look. Unfortunately I experienced some tip shrinkage with my quick dry (as you can see).
 

[Close-up: Jordana Glitters in LA City Nights]

A close-up to see the glitter combination... If I remember correctly, Jordana LA City Nights is pretty much an exact dupe of Milani Twinkle (from their One Coat Glitter collection). However, it's also cheaper and the bottle is larger! I'm really liking the prices and selection in the Jordana Glitters range!

Duping Scandalous - Jordana Magenta Magic vs Revlon Scandalous/Facets of Fuchsia

Sorry it's taken me this long to get around to this! I did a little teaser pic of this franken on Twitter a few weeks ago and have only now swatched it properly.

[Bottle to Nail: Magenta Magic franken dupe]

Here it is, bottle to nail! I wasn't going to pay $14 for Revlon Scandalous/Facets of Fuchsia in-store so when I saw Jordana's new collection of glitters (which are completely awesome, I must say!), I noticed this beauty here...

[In the bottle: Jordana Glitters in Magenta Magic]

Jordana Magenta Magic, dense tiny and large hexagonal magenta glitter swimming in a clear base! Only $3 at Cherry Culture for 15ml! I'm not sure why the product page lists it as 6ml, but it's most definitely a large bottle.

[Close-up: Magenta Magic franken dupe of Revlon Scandalous]

The glitter is fairly dense so you don't need much of it at all to dupe Scandalous/Facets of Fuchsia (and Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance!).

Recipe: Fill 1/3 bottle with Magenta Magic, then top up with clear and a couple drops of black, enough to tint the base to a black jelly. That's it!

[Magenta Magic franken dupe: 2 coats except middle finger (black base)]

These are all two layers of my franken without base, except for my stumpy middle finger where I layered it over black to check out the difference. You do lose a bit of the jelly look when you layer it over black so it might not be to your taste!

I've been in a photo-taking rut unfortunately so my apologies for the crappy picture quality. I'm out during the day so the only time I do my nails and take photos are at night by my desk lamp light. =( Oh well, I hope you guys find this useful anyway!

Polish Haul - China Glaze, Essence, Essie, Jordana

Hey hey hey! I'm in such a lazy mood these days! Jme and I have been guiltily avoiding updating The Plish List because I have something like *cough*30*cough* to add and she may... have more...? But anyyyhooo, here are some (not all *gulp*) pics of what I've collected in the first quarter of the year...

I've been hitting up every Target I can find to collect my Essence lemmings! I've gone to the Shire... Eastern Suburbs...and even Hay St Mall in Perth! It was all worth it though!

[Essence Vampire's Love (L-R): Into the Dark, The Dawn is Broken, Gold Old Buffy]

I managed to find old displays of the Vampire's Love collection with lingering bottles, phew! Though the name makes me cringe, these are all lovely lovely polishes - this is the finish I've been loving lately too, cremes with shimmer/glitter. <3 Anyone notice that these bottles are EXACTLY the same as the Australis polish bottles? ;D

[Essence (L-R): Shiny Godness, Mellow Yellow, Camouflage, Sweet As Candy, Rose Glam]

I also picked up a couple from the regular "colour & go" range and a french manicure polish. I picked up Camouflage and the French Glam because it was marked as "going to be discontinued" so I thought, why not!

[China Glaze: Twinkle Lights; Essence (L-R): Make It Golden, Time For Romance, Blue Addicted]

Here are some glitters I picked up... China Glaze Twinkle Lights... so festive! And through my dedicated travels, I managed to find all three of my Essence glitter lemmings! Not just that, I managed to score them for Jme too! WIN!

[China Glaze OMG: DV8, 2NITE, TTYL, L8R G8R]

Like most Sydneysiders, I set aside some time to go pick up some polishes from the China Glaze OMG collection. I've been after DV8 for the longest time. Teals have been my go-to colour since forever!

[Essie (L-R): Ridge Filling Base Coat, Da Bush, Fair Game, Your Hut Or Mine, Lion Around]

I saw that Ozsale was selling Essie on the Gumleaf Mafia page and decided to put a tiny order in for some minis from the Resort Collection and their Ridge Filling Base Coat. I already use Essie Fill the Gap! and so far the RFBC seems pretty similar. As for the Resort Collection, I'm loving these colours - they're almost all of the creme shimmer finish!

[Ozsale Rough Handling vs Essie Resort Collection]

Ozsale does have a reputation for knocking your packages around though and this is how my little box of plish arrived. One of the minis had actually fallen out of the box and was rattling about in the padded envelope. Thankfully nothing was damaged aside from the packaging but it did look quite battered! Just a word of warning if anyone is thinking of purchasing from them.

Finally, just this week, I received three Jordana Glitters polishes from a Cherry Culture order I made with Jme during another recent 20% off sale. I'm happy to say they are all fairly dense - potentially full coverage in 3 coats? Maybe 2 coats even!

[Jordana Glitters: Cosmic, Magenta Magic, LA City Nights]

I tweeted this a day or two ago but Magenta Magic is fairly easy to franken into a Revlon Scandalous/Facets of Fuchsia/Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance dupe. All you need to do is combine 1/3 Magenta Magic, 2/3 clear polish and about a dozen drops of a plain black creme to tint the base.

I haven't got swatches yet because I can't bear to remove the Lynderella I'm currently wearing but I will try to get it done soon!